Gluten Free for the Holidays: A Blogging Event!

November 5, 2007

(A word of warning…make sure the person packing your groceries puts your fresh cranberries ON TOP of your 4 pounds of oranges. Especially if you may be taking pictures of them. )

My first Gluten-free Holiday was Thanksgiving… and my wedding. We were married the Friday after Thanksgiving and had a two day wedding/celebration. For Thanksgiving, my good friend/practical sister Alice, made my first ever gluten-free Thanksgiving meal for not just me – but my entire family. She cooked gluten-free for 20 people when I could barely muster gluten-free for just me and my love. Some people are blessing beyond what they will ever know. Alice is exactly that – a woman I adore and appreciate beyond what she probably knows. She made our first GF Thanksgiving to be a dream (I still crave her Jambalaya!) and with ease. That was what the whole weekend was all about – Family and Love. Alice is amazing.

I know not everyone has an “Alice” in their corners come Holiday time. There are many approaches to staying gluten-free during the Holidays. It depends on your situation. There are three basic approaches from what I’ve seen/experienced:

Make food for yourself either to bring or eat before you go if the celebration isn’t at your own home.

Bring part of the meal (with serving utensils) and set it up away from the gluten-laden foods to avoid cross-contamination.

Host the celebration and make it gluten-free all the way.

The first option (eating for one) has never appealed to me. I know it works for others, but food is such an integral, social part of the Holidays. It’s what makes being gluten-free this time of year difficult – you WANT to blend in and partake equally. I have only chosen this option when I’m eating with colleagues or people that I don’t know well (like work parties at the office/school, etc).

The second option is one I’ve chosen more frequently with friends. It makes sense for all of our budgets, actually, that everyone would bring a dish to share. I make a huge pot/dish of something I’m craving and bring plenty to share. Most everyone wants to dig in – they don’t care nor are they even aware 99% of the time that it is gluten-free. Those friends who are aware want to try it to see “what gluten-free tastes like”. Let’s just say, I try to make these the tasty dishes and don’t guinea pig my new gluten-free baking on my unsuspecting friends. LOL. Nah. That’s an honor I reserve for my family.

The last option is what we like the best. I say “we” here, because my love has expressed how much he prefers it too. Not because he gets to cook/clean with me (even more so because he’s the amazing chef of the house!), but because he *hates* how sick, crabby, unfocused, and altered I become after ingesting gluten. It’s true. While my body pays the price for any cross-contamination, he pays for it too with a wacky-spouse for several hours – even a couple days – after these incidents.

We keep a journal of our favorite recipes and ideas for the following Holidays/years to come. A few of the dishes we love making are:

Triple Cranberry & Ginger Dressing

Cornbread and Sausage stuffing

Wild Rice Salads

Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Cocoa-roasted Cauliflower

Pumpkin Brulee.

Garlic Scalloped Potatoes

Yin & Yang Sesame Shrimp

“Uncle Fallen’s Chicken Lollies”

Black bean & Corn salsa

Homemade Naan

Lobster & Watermelon Salad

Ok. I could go on and on. But that’s not the point here. The point is, the longer we work with gluten-free foods and become familiar with what we can/cannot eat, life is easier. Holidays are easier. Now it’s time to share out and be the virtual “Alice” for someone else.

While I’d love to invite you all over for Thanksgiving, I’m fairly certain that we won’t all fit in my house. And I’m positive that my love would … well.. freak out. LOL. So instead, let’s have a virtual Holiday Blogging Event!

Here’s the image to use:

Who?

Anyone who would like to participate – blogger or non-blogger alike!

What?

Share recipes/photos for any Holiday dishes that you and your family love.

All dishes/recipes must be Gluten-free to be included.

Dishes may also be free of other allergens, but Gluten-Free is the goal of this blogging event.

Link backs and emails please. That way I can figure out which event you are submitting for.

If you have any ideas or an offer to help, I’m all ears! Maybe we should divide the Holiday Events to different hosts? I’m all ears! (Or eyeballs in the case of email. 😉 Just let me know! If you would like to host one of these, please HOLLER via email!)

This is such a great idea! this is my first holiday season gluten free. My sister has been emailing me daily about what I can and can’t eat for Thanksgiving. She’s so sweet! I’m in charge of at least one dessert, the gravy and just generally helping out to make sure we avoid any contamination of the turkey.

Absolutely, Karen – Post and link away! =) And yes, the turkey CC issue took me quite a while to get under control. Now we order a fresh (or wild!) turkey from a local butcher and they even brine it for us in kosher salt/water. – Kate

We don’t do Thanksgiving over here as it s a specifically American celebration but I might do you something traditional for Bonfire Night (Guy Fawkes night) as we celebrate that on the 5th of November. Yes i know it was yesterday but hey.

Diwali is celebrated a lot in all the main cities around here and is just coming up, though it isn’t one I actively join in on normally it is a great festival. Both that and Guy Fawkes include fireworks so we get them going off most nights for about two weeks around here!

Kate – You So Rock this community!I am thinking I need to go gluten free just to capture some of the abundant energy you have! Hey readers, I am novice at this blogging stuff, but it seems to me Kate you should be finding some sponsors for your blog.

Cheers! You Go Girlfriend! And Alice, if you are reading this, you did such a great job of hosting all of us on Thanksgiving! How blessed we all felt and remember with joy our time at your lovely home!

I just love this idea! Way to go!
Can my pear-cranberry tart with almond paste participate even though I posted it before 11/1?
Thanks for doing this and I can’t wait to see what recipes people create.
Jean Layton

Hi! I’ve been reading your blog for a little while (I came here from GroupRecipes), and this event is really great I think! Thanks!

This is my first holiday season knowing about most of my food allergies (there are a few), so hopefully many of the recipes will be helpful that come here. I would love to contribute too.

I’m a little confused however about what linking to and from is. Do I just link to this page from my personal post, and then post a link here?

Thanks again,
Beth

Hi Beth! Welcome! I’m glad you are going to join in for the Holiday Baking Event. And yes, the links are just a matter of posting a link from your recipe post back to here and then letting me know (email or another comment here work great). That way when I pull all the recipes together for a summary, I will have yours on the list too. -Kate

Sounds fun! My attempt to adapt the gingerbread recipe my mom and I always made at Christmas completely flopped last year (no xanthum gum + Bob’s Red Mill GF all-purp flour = crumbly, beany cookies). But this year I have a plan. I’ll work on it and post!

Can you post the email for the other hosts? Or do we send all submissions to you? Can’t wait to see the Thanksgiving roundup. Sorry I didn’t get a recipe in for that one. I really wanted to but I ran out of time! To make up for that I posted on the first eligible day this time

I would love to know how to blog. My son has celiac and I am reading all these comments and wondering about them all. I read something about a cc with a turkey. How does that happen? Isn’t it just fresh meat? I really don’t know much about this all yet but I want to learn so he will not continue to suffer. Email me if you could. Thanks.

-I’m sending an email off to you about this too – but When people talk about CC issues with meats/turkeys, it’s more about the brining. seasoning, cooking, etc. MANY meats have things added to them that may/may not include things like barley malt, wheat, wheat starch, etc and they may even be disguised as “natural flavorings”. While the longer I am GF, the more I start to see wheat as UNnatural – at least for MY body…LOL – , it is still a natural ingredient.

My parents (who are in town for the Holidays with me) also struggle with these ideas when they are out shopping for me. My mom and dad have seen me reach for my cell phone to inquire about a product – but more often than not – I have begun to rely on the labeling/packaging declarations of “gluten free” as well. These little label inclusions make my life MUCH easier and shorten my lengthy shopping trips – or food odysseys, as I’ve called them before. Especially when shopping for things that I don’t always buy for just the two of us, like 10 pound bone-in hams. (BTW, Thank you Martha Stewart Ham for being labeled as GF at CostCo this Holiday season.)

There are a few product lists – Clan Thompson being the most noted – that are available as well. These lists are very helpful when beginning the trek into the land of GF eating. I will tell you that it gets MUCH easier as you get familiar with the key phrases and things that should get your attention. You will begin to shop along the “edges” of the grocery store – dairy, produce, meats – and much less in the center (processed/canned/etc) as well.

I hope this helps, Sara. PLEASE don’t hesitate to ask around for help with it all. The GF community is a GREAT one with wide, open supportive arms. After all, we’ve all been there. In fact, we still are!

[…] extensive) restrictions. With that joy in mind, Kate at Gluten-Free Gobsmacked has created the Gluten-Free Holiday Blogging Event. During the Gluten-Free Holiday Blogging Event, there are three periods for gathering gluten-free […]

[…] it. I am submitting this recipe to the Christmas Baking for the Holidays Gluten-Free Blog Event. Kate at Gluten Free Gobsmacked started this event and the Christmas round-up will be hosted by Sally at Aprovechar. A few baking […]

[…] Baking Event, gluten free, sweet stuff | Edit: Kate at Gluten Free Gobsmacked is hosting a Gluten-Free Holiday Baking Event. This is a way to collect everyone’s favorite holiday recipes in one place for easy […]